Performance Enhancement and Politicisation of High-Performance Sport: The West German ‘air clyster’ Affair of 1976

Meier Henk Erik, Reinold Marcel

Forschungsartikel (Zeitschrift) | Peer reviewed

Zusammenfassung

While the politicisation of high-performance sport is perceived to represent one of thedriving forces behind doping, we know not much how exactly the cold war in sports hasaffected sporting misconduct in western societies. Therefore, we propose here todistinguish between ideological and institutional politicisation and explicit and implicitacceptance of dubious practices. We apply our framework to analyse the West German‘air clyster' affair of 1976 in order to examine to what extent the politicisation of highperformancesport during the cold war affected the search for innovation inperformance enhancement. We find that political pressure for improved competitivenessin West German sport had served to create a semi-autonomous high-performancesport sector in West Germany where blurred lines of accountability allowedquestionable practices to prosper. While the public despised the use of questionablemethods, sportive nationalism served to eclipse dubious practices. West German sportleaders adopted insofar a permissive attitude towards questionable practices as sportingmisconduct was not sanctioned. Thus, our results strongly suggest that sport'spoliticisation during the cold war facilitated the search for performance-increasingmethods in western societies.

Details zur Publikation

Jahrgang / Bandnr. / Volume30
Ausgabe / Heftnr. / Issue12
Seitenbereich1351-1373
StatusVeröffentlicht
Veröffentlichungsjahr2013
Sprache, in der die Publikation verfasst istEnglisch
DOI10.1080/09523367.2013.784273
Stichwörterpoliticisation; cold war; doping; West Germany; Montreal Olympics; Introduction

Autor*innen der Universität Münster

Meier, Henk Erik
Professur für Sozialwissenschaften des Sports (Prof. Meier)